20 May 2012

Brains

It's Sherlock because Lestrade said I could do a post. Today after I made breakfast and then John and Lestrade cleaned the kitchen and I sorted out everything in all the cupboards we went somewhere AMAZING. And they both knew about it and hadn't even told me even though we could have gone before, but John said I would have been impossible if they'd said anything but anyway it doesn't matter because we went today and it was all about brains.

There were real actual brains and you could look right at them close and then there were videos and pictures and old brains and new brains and ones that had diseases and it was the best thing ever. They said it wasn't meant to be for people until they were 14 like Mycroft but I told the man all about why I wanted to see the brains and John told him I'd be okay and they let us in and it was great and I've never been that close to a real brain out of a human before and I saw what Molly does when she cuts them up and looks inside and you could see how they use other ways of looking inside in hospital too. They also had really old things about brains and how they used to think they worked and what they used to do if your head hurt and John says he's never cut a hole in anyone's head but he might start with Lestrade's if Lestrade doesn't behave and it was really great and you can go and look on their website to see some of the videos and brains and pictures and it won't be as good as going but it'll still be good and they even bought me the book so I can read that when I'm in bed and I might take it to show Mrs T too. And they had skulls as well and they were good too and one of the brains was from Ancient Egypt and they hadn't mushed it all up and pulled it out through the nose but it was proper and dried up now but still looked like a brain and that's really old. And there was stuff about what happens if you're shot in the head and about music and how you can see what happens in your brain when you hear music and they can see all that with clever scans and what happens when you think and they even had some of Einstein's brain there.

It was the best thing ever and John says it was free so we can go back too. And now Lestrade's cooking dinner and John's asleep in his chair and Lestrade says maybe I could try trepanning on him.

We were just putting the corkscrew and tin opener away, as we replaced all the kitchen utensils into the kitchen...that's all. I'm sure no one ever suggested alternate uses for them. Especially not him.

(by the way, Sherlock determined where they went. Don't expect to ever find anything ever again, unless you think Sherlock-style about what goes with what.)

I must say, Sherlock, that was an excellent and exciting report, and now I've read it I have the strongest urge to get myself to London so I can see it too! Since I can't afford that, I definitely will be checking out the website, thank you for the link. :)

(I'm sure your reorganization of the kitchen is perfectly logical, but you may have to explain it to John and Lestrade--or be sure you're there when they want to cook or bake so you can find everything for them, that would work, too.)

To the best of my knowledge, trepanning is done when there is pressure on the brain, and I'm pretty sure that migraines aren't caused by pressure. Before cutting a hole in Lestrade's skull to cure his migraines, you might want to check the research on that--the first rule of a doctor is "do no harm," after all. :)

What a wonderful day out, Sherlock. Thank you for writing all about it for us :-)

I think a good scientist would check out the existing research on a procedure like trepanning before attempting to take a corkscrew to their nanny or DI's head. After all, a corkscrew might be completely the wrong size tool for the job, and that would invalidate any findings. It would be a shame to go to all that effort and then not have a valid result at the end. (You might also want to think about the way modern science tends to insist on the informed consent of research subjects these days...)

Wow, Sherlock - that really is AMAZING! You lucky, lucky boy! It's really good that they let you in, even though you're not 14. I'm going to have a good look at the website, and next time I come to England it will be on my list of things to see.

Hope everyone is currently having a lovely, deep sleep. I wish I was, too. Stupid work.

Old, grumpy, tired and childish! You really are on a roll this morning Greg ;-)

Seriously give yourself a break Monday morning is never good especially when you were so tired lastnight.

How many cups of coffee will it require to wake you up do you think? Is it a three cup morning or worse? (maybe you should have a nice cake with your coffee caffeine plus sugar must make happier Greg surely)

Add me to the grumpy Monday morning badgers. *yawn* I have to hustle this morning and get in early so I can drive 5 hours west to watch some field work. Its early. It may rain. I don't know exactly where I'm going. But I'll get there eventually, with coffee in tow.

That tour sounds simply amazing, Sherlock! What would you say is the most interesting thing you learned? Anything you didn't really know before?

It's all right, love. Everyone's allowed a bad mood once in a while. Although I'll be surprised if you can sustain it through Sherlock hugging your leg and telling you all about whatever new frog developments have happened over the weekend.

Sherlock, you should ask Lestrade more about it when he comes home, because obviously I know nothing more than he's said here and I could be wrong--but I don't think it could have been a normal sort of mistake; people aren't usually punished because they're not perfect. I imagine it had to be something that it's the person's job to know how to do right, or something he or she was being stupidly careless about--something like that.

John says if you do things on accident you shouldn't get yelled at like if I spill my milk or when I let Mycroft's dogs out the first time but I think if you're a police officer or a doctor or something really important like that you have to be more careful but I don't know what they did yet but if Lestrade thinks it was stupid it was probably really stupid.

I'm sure I have no idea what you all are talking about... *looks innocent*

Sherlock, I've just been looking at the website for the brain exhibit--thank you very much for the link, it's great! I've read Gould's "The Mismeasure of Man" which overlaps some of the images a bit, but the video was fascinating and the pictures were really good. And from the previews they show it looks like the book John and Lestrade bought you is very interesting indeed.

It's just as well you didn't want boring at 4:30, L, since I fell asleep shortly thereafter--although, come to think of it, that certainly would have been dull! (I was going to say that I hope your meeting is more interesting than you thought, but after yesterday I'm not sure boring is not preferable...so I'll just hope today is a better day than yesterday all round.)

SH--wrap it up tightly and dispose of it safely--no one else wants it either! (I hope you feel better soon.)

AnonyBob - it is, doing work at home on the sofa in my shorts isn't the same as stuck in the office in a suit.

Sherlock...who I should have answered before you went to bed... We'll talk about it. It basically means we know where people will be evac'd/invac'd to if there's a problem in the Olympic park. But then we worry that terrorists will guess this and will use it to herd people in the direction they want by causing different threats at key strategic locations... and then, once everyone is going in the direction they want, potentially let of a bomb or deploy snipers of some sort for maximum casualties.

So in the planning process we then work out how we would deal with that as a crime scene if it were to happen, with all the usual problems of severely contaminated scenes.

Dunno, all takes me back to the 7/7 bombings, and I definitely don't want to go through anything like that again.

Going for a run, having a long hot shower, lazing on the sofa in your dressing gown until John gets home,'enjoying' your afternoon, picking up Sherlock and playing in the park then cooking and eating a nice dinner. Thats a day off ;-) (I know you're busy, you have to work hard and you have to see the bright side as much as possible but make sure you make the most of the time John's at home ;-) )

The other stuff all sounds scary to me and nerves will be on edge throughout the whole thing no doubt :-( Hopefully though every one is so well prepared that anyone trying anything will be stopped before they get going :-)

I will also attempt a run, followed by a shower (I'm still slightly alarmed by the number of you who didn't think I'd've showered after my run the other day!!), and have all that done ready to enjoy John in the afternoon. I mean, enjoy my afternoon with John.

I don't think we thought you hadn't just that it might have helped the itching ;-) are you all healed now?

Other than the effect on you the security for the olympics bothers me very little. We have some football up here Brazil and New Zealand or something like that but I can't see that attracting many people so unlikely to be much of a worry :-)

(I will of course be worried about you throughout the whole thing but will do my best not to tell you to be careful ;-) )

As for security threats--I live in Manhattan, and I was here on 9/11, and all I can say is if I'd've changed any of my routines I would have felt the terrorists won, so I didn't then and haven't since. (Which is NOT to minimize the extra burden on police forces, just to say that if a threat is ever-present I think you grow accustomed to it as the new normal.)

RR - Apart from a short period late 90s I don't think anyone in London has ever felt like there wasn't an ever-present threat of bombs in London. Most people lived with the IRA bombing campaigns for so long that these new threats don't really register as anything out of the ordinary, I don't think.